Light of Spring

by Robert A. TinoIt's about the light. It's about climbing as high as possible early in the new season to watch something that can't be touched deftly transform the massive face of million year-old mountains. It comes and goes in patches and waves and streams. It careens across the countryside and basket-weaves a mountain quilt out of emerging colors. It turns a dull gold luminous; makes bits of ivory incandescent; tricks the eye into seeing cobalt, no, violet...wait, is it azure? It drifts and settles into thick mists draped over thousand-foot peaks and abruptly disappears into the crook of the valley. Its siren call seduces an entire forest into awakening out of a profound sleep to its riper, livelier nature. It changes moods, shifts perspective, softens hearts, breeds a slight discontent that only the full-blown greening of the season can cure. It is both illusionist and enchantress ... a natural master of disguise, this Light of Spring. A view from the Foothill Parkways between Walland and Chilhowee Lake, looking back to the Tennessee side of the Park, this Tino Early Spring release is one of only a handful of mountainscape vertical works by the artist.